Second Chance
by Sehrezad
Summary: Sara is given a second chance... and she is ready to take it. Warrick-Sara


**Second Chance**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the show or its characters._

_Summary: Sara is given a second chance… and she is ready to take it. [Warrick-Sara]_

_Spoilers for Butterflied…_

Sara was standing in front of the window with a stern look on her face. A few moments before she was listening to the little monologue that Grissom was giving to the suspect, no, to the actual killer, who was just about to leave the room. He was so sincere. So heartbreakingly sincere. Sara hardly ever heard Grissom speaking so openly about his feelings. How many times did she wish to have him talk to her that way. But he was always so guarded about his feelings and hardly ever gave anything away. But not now. This time Sara was given everything that she has ever wanted. The truth.

She didn't know for how long she stood in front of that window but by the time she finally snapped out of her whirling thoughts, everybody had left the room. It was empty with the lights out, which gave Sara the opportunity to take a look at the person who was looking back at her from the window.

She tilted her head as if examining the woman in front of her. And she did exactly that. Her feelings didn't make sense for her at that moment so she tried to understand them by deciphering the look of her counterpart.

She searched for sadness or disappointment but she found none on the calm features. She couldn't quite understand it. The man, for whose love she would have given anything, had just admitted that he would never be able to risk the life, for which he had worked so hard, for her, no matter what his feelings might be. She expected it to hurt. And at some level it did. However, it wasn't that kind of pain she expected. The one that would shatter her world and make her heart break into million little pieces. The one which would make living simply impossible and which would only left a void in its wake.

She lifted her head a little and narrowed her eyes which were still focused on the woman. But she did feel emptiness. She tried to argue with herself but however hard she tried, she just didn't feel devastated. Her heart didn't break and she was sure that she could live on just fine.

As the minutes passed by, she got further and further from finding an explanation for her feelings and she became more and more frustrated with herself and the woman in front of her. She wasn't much of a help for her.

Finally she gave up her scrutinizing and with a sigh she left her spot and left for the locker room. After all, the shift had been over for quite some time.

She was passing by the break room when a sideway glance made her stop in her track. She took a few steps towards the room but didn't go inside. She just looked instead. In the room there was Warrick sitting in one of the chairs with a journal in front of him. But he wasn't reading, Sara could tell. He seemed to have dozed off with his head resting on his left arm which in turn was resting on the table. A small smile found its way to Sara's lips as she watched the man in front of her, the man with whom she had shared her bed for the past seven months…

As she was standing in front of the break room watching Warrick's sleeping form suddenly she stepped back as if she had been punched in the face. And truth to be told, she felt like that. Warrick loved her, as much she had known for a long time now. Of course he never said so himself. But he never had to. Sara just had to look into his eyes and she knew it. And she always felt bad about it. It's true that right at the beginning they talked about their relationship and agreed upon the 'friends with benefits' status but Sara always felt as if she had played him.

But now, as reality punched her in the face, literally, the feelings she had tried to understand a few minutes before suddenly made sense. It wasn't Grissom. It hadn't been him for quite some time now. It was Warrick. And with Grissom's admission she hadn't lost the man she loved simply because she didn't love him anymore. And the emptiness, she so desperately tried to hang to, wasn't the one that Grissom left in her heart. It was the place of her dreams about Grissom, the dreams that, she now realized, would never become reality. But it didn't hurt. Without realizing it she had moved on. And now she became free to face her actual feelings. She was ready to face reality. Grissom referred to a second chance that he couldn't take and, although unconsciously, he gave Sara a second chance. And, unlike Grissom, she would take it.

With a new determination on her face, she entered the break room and crouched next to Warrick. She watched him a little longer and then gently stroked his face trying to wake him up. He stirred a little and slowly woke up sitting up in the chair.

"Hey, Sleepyhead!" Sara greeted him smiling while stood up lent against the table.

"What time it is?" He asked while stretched his muscles.

"Way after shift. Speaking of which, what are you doing here?"

"I just thought that we could have breakfast together but I guess I missed that."

Sara didn't say anything at that. She just looked at the man in front of her. He was unbelievable. He was waiting in the break room for almost three hours just to take her out for breakfast. And it wasn't just that. He bore with her and her, now stupid, fantasy of Grissom in the last seven months without any hope of her changing her mind. He was always there for her. He always loved her. Unconditionally.

"I love you." She simply stated looking into his eyes and, instead of a shocked expression, Warrick gave her a warm smile.

"I know." He stated in return as if it had been most natural thing on Earth. So at that moment Sara was the one with the shocked expression, which Warrick found rather cute. He reached out and pulled a still baffled Sara into his lap. "I'm not a fool, Sara." He began to explain. "I wouldn't have gotten myself so deep into that so called relationship we have if I hadn't known that you actually have feelings for me. Girl, I didn't want my heart to be broken. I would have rather left this whole thing. But I knew that you feel something. You just had to realize it. And I'm happy that you finally did it." Here he stopped for a little and reached up to touch her cheek. "I love you, too." He said finally with a smile that was meant only for her. And Sara knew it.

In that moment she realized that there might have been a time when she would have given anything just to be able to have Grissom's affection, but now sitting in Warrick's lap, she was sure that she would give anything just to see that smile on his face…

But she didn't dwell on that subject for too long as Warrick's lips found hers and she let herself lose in the kiss…

**THE END**

_Sorry but it's not one of the most original ideas… and sorry for my mistakes, too._

_Thanks for reading!_


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